Bound to Fall

Villains and Virtues

By: A. K. Caggiano

Narrated by: Ellen Quay, Seth Podowitz

Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Celeste Delacroix’s sister is dead. This is unfortunate… sort of. But it’s also an opportunity to return to the realm of Eiren and begin anew—if noxscura will allow her.

Cursed with dark magic, living virtuously has always eluded Celeste, but she’s determined to right the wrongs she wrought in the sleepy village of Briarwyke and maybe even find her ever after, happiness unrequired and, as she sees it, undeserved. But darkness accompanies Celeste as keenly as clumsiness and shame, and when she accidentally releases a new evil on Briarwyke, she must find a divine source of magic to destroy it.

Sir Reeve, Holy Knight of Valcord, is one such divine source—not to mention incredibly handsome—and as luck would have it, already intent on vanquishing the evil that plagues Briarwyke. Unfortunately, he believes that evil to be a noxscura-wielding witch who has desecrated his faith’s temple: Celeste herself. Abyss-bent on fulfilling his destiny, Reeve’s virtue and beliefs have never wavered because the world is simple, after all—there are those who are good, and those who are evil, and evil must be destroyed.

But what happens when a perceived evil requests assistance in defeating an even greater threat? Can Celeste and Reeve band together to save Briarwyke, or will their contempt for one another be their downfall?

Bound to Fall is a standalone spinoff of Villains & Virtues, a completed trilogy that follows the exploits of Damien and Amma. This book takes place in the spring, after the events of Villains & Virtues, and does contain spoilers for the series, including character death. However, Bound to Fall focuses on a new couple, Celeste and Reeve, who we did not meet in the original trilogy, and can be listened to as a standalone story.

©2024 A. K. Caggiano (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

Cute Fantasy Romance

I finished reading the first series right before this release was announced and was so excited because I was itching for more from this author/narrator combo. You can definitely read this as a standalone, but I recommend reading the other books to get more context to the world-building!

I'm very picky about narrators, and I think Seth & Ellen are my favorite, especially out of all the fantasy/romance I've listened to. I love the character voice Seth does for Damien in the first books and hoped this book would use the same voice for Reeve, but even though it didn't, it was still a good performance.

At first I was a little annoyed with Reeve's character for being so stubborn. But he grew on me and is super adorable after a bit. A lot of his character made more sense and was more relatable when I read him as sort of autistic-coded. Him & Celeste are a very cute pairing and tons of it had me giggling. I wish there was even more of them over the actual main plot quest lol.

Even though heavy topics are discussed, it's never in a way that feels uncomfortable or triggering (in my opinion) so overall it still works as a pleasant, casual listen.

I'm no literary expert, so I only have one real gripe, which is the pacing. When I saw I only had 1-2 hours of the book left, I was not sure how the story was going to wrap up with so little time. It had a satisfying ending, but it all happened so fast, especially in regards to some side character stories. Parts in the middle didn't necessarily drag on, but felt imbalanced.

Overall though, this was really cute and a good follow-up to the main series, and I definitely recommend reading all of it.

Loved it

Ok I laughed soo much. I loved this book, and the narrators?!? Perfect. Definitely keep it coming A.K

Witty and sweet.

Love the world and these two characters. Great plot, banter, and just enough spice 🌶️ narrators amazing as always!

Love this world

This author does adult romcom better than most feeds her audience with humor, romance, drama and a HEA ending.

Interesting story, Imbalanced characters

First, this is romantasy with a dash of humor, so I’m reviewing it relative to that genre and the other Villains and Virtues books. Context matters! Sadly this book was somewhat disappointing relative to the original series. I didn’t feel like there was enough character development, and perhaps the story would have been better as a duology. My biggest gripe is how deeply traumatized the characters are - horrible abuse in many forms takes place, and the resulting psychological damage is all over the page for both MCs. There is some healing where they share their stories with each other, but the breakneck story line and ending really glossed over how broken these two characters were. It’s not explicit that their trauma is magically healed by the power of love, but pretty strongly implied bc it’s like their baggage and negative self talk just *poof* is gone and suddenly the FMC has confidence to vanquish…well, you get the idea. While it’s true that healthy loving relationships go a long way in helping people heal from deeply rooted trauma, it’s not a magic antidote. I was taken aback that this story would go that way, when I felt the primarily trilogy was a lot more grounded and honest about human emotions and interaction dynamics….yeah ok that’s perhaps a weird thing to expect in a romantasy, but it was so refreshing to read such an amazing series with great world building AND complex characters with messy but realistic emotions…and NOT wish-fulfillment subtly toxic shadowdaddy-bratty teenager relationships!! So yes, I was a bit surprised and saddened when this book threw two deeply broken characters together (seriously, the negative self talk was getting painfully repetitive) and magically healed their traumas with love (and spice of course). It’s not bad, just not to the level of the original series. As far as performance, the narrators did a great job, no notes!